The publication of Blackstone’s Commentaries in the 1760s initially gained a favourable reception. However, the criticisms made in 1776 by Bentham in the Fragment on Government did such serious ...
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The publication of Blackstone’s Commentaries in the 1760s initially gained a favourable reception. However, the criticisms made in 1776 by Bentham in the Fragment on Government did such serious damage to Blackstone’s reputation that, in the nineteenth century, among many scholars, his standing was low. This chapter argues that an important way of understanding Blackstone’s book is as an institutional work. This argument is developed in three parts: first, institutional writings as a genre will briefly be discussed; second, the recognition of this genre in England will be described; and third, Blackstone’s status as an institutional writer will be argued for, and the solution this provides to some of the problems related to his Commentaries will be demonstrated.Less

Blackstone, an English Institutist: Legal Literature and the Rise of the Nation State

John W Cairns

Published in print: 2015-08-01

The publication of Blackstone’s Commentaries in the 1760s initially gained a favourable reception. However, the criticisms made in 1776 by Bentham in the Fragment on Government did such serious damage to Blackstone’s reputation that, in the nineteenth century, among many scholars, his standing was low. This chapter argues that an important way of understanding Blackstone’s book is as an institutional work. This argument is developed in three parts: first, institutional writings as a genre will briefly be discussed; second, the recognition of this genre in England will be described; and third, Blackstone’s status as an institutional writer will be argued for, and the solution this provides to some of the problems related to his Commentaries will be demonstrated.

This chapter examines some key ways in which post-Marxist and related intellectual work (such as that of Judith Butler and Richard Rorty) conceives of itself as intervention, pursuing the matter of ...
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This chapter examines some key ways in which post-Marxist and related intellectual work (such as that of Judith Butler and Richard Rorty) conceives of itself as intervention, pursuing the matter of how institutional intellectual work construes itself whenever it seeks to be or affect an intervention. It explores this by considering some exemplary encounters at the borders of post-Marxism that look at the heart of the problem. These encounters and accounts, the chapter argues, reveal the form, orientation, hopes, and often less-than-explicitly declared or avowed metaphysical rationales, fantasies and presuppositions of much theory about political practice. The chapter explores the way theory and practice are thought, examining the way that certain of Laclau’s key engagements with other approaches have been orientated, organised and executed.Less

– Theory versus Practice

Paul Bowman

Published in print: 2007-04-18

This chapter examines some key ways in which post-Marxist and related intellectual work (such as that of Judith Butler and Richard Rorty) conceives of itself as intervention, pursuing the matter of how institutional intellectual work construes itself whenever it seeks to be or affect an intervention. It explores this by considering some exemplary encounters at the borders of post-Marxism that look at the heart of the problem. These encounters and accounts, the chapter argues, reveal the form, orientation, hopes, and often less-than-explicitly declared or avowed metaphysical rationales, fantasies and presuppositions of much theory about political practice. The chapter explores the way theory and practice are thought, examining the way that certain of Laclau’s key engagements with other approaches have been orientated, organised and executed.

This book traces the struggle to reconcile ideas and practices related to market growth, on the one hand, and sociocultural change, on the other, that exists within the U.S. organic foods sector. ...
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This book traces the struggle to reconcile ideas and practices related to market growth, on the one hand, and sociocultural change, on the other, that exists within the U.S. organic foods sector. Using a multi-level, qualitative approach, it examines how sector members engage with these ideas and practices during their day-to-day activities, as well as during periods of institution building and sector-level change. It uses interviews conducted by the author with sixty organic foods businesspeople, regulators, and advocates, as well as a wide range of archival sources, to describe how sector members have promoted intrasectoral conflict by emphasizing differences between these understandings and how they strive for compromise by highlighting points of convergence. Substantively, this text explains how the compromises that existed during the organic sector’s early years dissolved into conflicts related to federal organic foods regulations, and it also documents the interrelated contemporary strategies of newly arrived organic foods businesspeople, activist critics of market growth, and countercultural co-op store leaders. At a theoretical level, the book makes use of sociological and organizational scholarship about institutional logics to construct an analytic frame for research about fields that are divided between conflicting understandings of purpose and different imagined future trajectories. It also pushes the institutional logics approach further by explaining how the social mechanisms of cultural framing and organizational/institutional work mediate between contradictory logics and processes of conflict and compromise.Less

Organizing Organic : Conflict and Compromise in an Emerging Market

Michael A. Haedicke

Published in print: 2016-05-18

This book traces the struggle to reconcile ideas and practices related to market growth, on the one hand, and sociocultural change, on the other, that exists within the U.S. organic foods sector. Using a multi-level, qualitative approach, it examines how sector members engage with these ideas and practices during their day-to-day activities, as well as during periods of institution building and sector-level change. It uses interviews conducted by the author with sixty organic foods businesspeople, regulators, and advocates, as well as a wide range of archival sources, to describe how sector members have promoted intrasectoral conflict by emphasizing differences between these understandings and how they strive for compromise by highlighting points of convergence. Substantively, this text explains how the compromises that existed during the organic sector’s early years dissolved into conflicts related to federal organic foods regulations, and it also documents the interrelated contemporary strategies of newly arrived organic foods businesspeople, activist critics of market growth, and countercultural co-op store leaders. At a theoretical level, the book makes use of sociological and organizational scholarship about institutional logics to construct an analytic frame for research about fields that are divided between conflicting understandings of purpose and different imagined future trajectories. It also pushes the institutional logics approach further by explaining how the social mechanisms of cultural framing and organizational/institutional work mediate between contradictory logics and processes of conflict and compromise.

This chapter introduces the transformative and expansionary logics that exist in the organic sector, using both illustrative vignettes and formal exposition, and explains the book’s twin goals of (1) ...
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This chapter introduces the transformative and expansionary logics that exist in the organic sector, using both illustrative vignettes and formal exposition, and explains the book’s twin goals of (1) understanding the development of these logics during the sector’s history and (2) examining the relationship between these logics and the activities of sector participants. It locates this project in the context of scholarship about institutional logics and discusses the book’s relationship to other literature about organic farming and the organic movement. It also explains how the concepts of interpretive framing and organizational/institutional work provide insight into links between contradictory logics and social processes of conflict and compromise. Finally, the chapter provides a summary of key arguments and a plan of the book as a whole.Less

Visions of Transformation and Growth : Institutional Logics and Social Processes in the Organic Sector

Michael A. Haedicke

Published in print: 2016-05-18

This chapter introduces the transformative and expansionary logics that exist in the organic sector, using both illustrative vignettes and formal exposition, and explains the book’s twin goals of (1) understanding the development of these logics during the sector’s history and (2) examining the relationship between these logics and the activities of sector participants. It locates this project in the context of scholarship about institutional logics and discusses the book’s relationship to other literature about organic farming and the organic movement. It also explains how the concepts of interpretive framing and organizational/institutional work provide insight into links between contradictory logics and social processes of conflict and compromise. Finally, the chapter provides a summary of key arguments and a plan of the book as a whole.

This chapter discusses the passage of the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990 and the subsequent development of the National Organic Program (NOP), which established federal rules for the ...
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This chapter discusses the passage of the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990 and the subsequent development of the National Organic Program (NOP), which established federal rules for the organic trade. It argues that OFPA and the NOP sparked conflict in the organic sector by prioritizing market growth and by marginalizing transformative ideas and practices. The chapter explains how problems associated with the expanding organic trade and a disruptive food scare created the conditions for OFPA’s passage. It also examines how sector members worked at the legislative and institutional levels to bring democratic arrangements associated with the transformative logic into the regulations. These efforts resulted in a stakeholder advisory group known as the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), but they did not prevent dissident organic foods farmers and consumers from mobilizing around frames that questioned the legitimacy of the federal regulations.Less

Stabilizing the Market, Dividing the Field : Federal Regulation, Field Settlement, and the Emergence of Conflict

Michael A. Haedicke

Published in print: 2016-05-18

This chapter discusses the passage of the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990 and the subsequent development of the National Organic Program (NOP), which established federal rules for the organic trade. It argues that OFPA and the NOP sparked conflict in the organic sector by prioritizing market growth and by marginalizing transformative ideas and practices. The chapter explains how problems associated with the expanding organic trade and a disruptive food scare created the conditions for OFPA’s passage. It also examines how sector members worked at the legislative and institutional levels to bring democratic arrangements associated with the transformative logic into the regulations. These efforts resulted in a stakeholder advisory group known as the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), but they did not prevent dissident organic foods farmers and consumers from mobilizing around frames that questioned the legitimacy of the federal regulations.

This chapter addresses the third facet of the triple agenda: investigating and developing policy and practical innovations meant to reflect the reality of encore adulthood and promote, for those who ...
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This chapter addresses the third facet of the triple agenda: investigating and developing policy and practical innovations meant to reflect the reality of encore adulthood and promote, for those who want it, ongoing engagement in paid jobs, self-employment, or unpaid volunteer work. It describes institutional work, efforts at upending established, taken-for-granted logics and arrangements and fashioning social inventions. Innovations customizing and updating the life course can capitalize on a vast pool of talent by harnessing Boomers’ continued—and voluntary—public engagement. The chapter describes pockets of innovation in public policies, higher education, and organizations, including flexible scheduling and work arrangements, not-so-big jobs, and hiring older workers. It also describes pockets of innovation in the form of third-party developments, such as encore.org, Life Reimagined (AARP), and placement agencies.Less

Institutional Work, Pockets of Change

Phyllis Moen

Published in print: 2016-05-01

This chapter addresses the third facet of the triple agenda: investigating and developing policy and practical innovations meant to reflect the reality of encore adulthood and promote, for those who want it, ongoing engagement in paid jobs, self-employment, or unpaid volunteer work. It describes institutional work, efforts at upending established, taken-for-granted logics and arrangements and fashioning social inventions. Innovations customizing and updating the life course can capitalize on a vast pool of talent by harnessing Boomers’ continued—and voluntary—public engagement. The chapter describes pockets of innovation in public policies, higher education, and organizations, including flexible scheduling and work arrangements, not-so-big jobs, and hiring older workers. It also describes pockets of innovation in the form of third-party developments, such as encore.org, Life Reimagined (AARP), and placement agencies.

This book describes a new life stage, encore adulthood, sandwiched between conventional adulthood—traditional careers and childrearing—and conventional old age. A time of varied paths in work, ...
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This book describes a new life stage, encore adulthood, sandwiched between conventional adulthood—traditional careers and childrearing—and conventional old age. A time of varied paths in work, retirement, family care, or civic engagement, this stage is made possible by medical advances and lifestyle changes improving population health and longevity. The encore adult years occur around ages 55 to 75, as Boomers begin to think about second acts. Twenty-first-century life in North America and Europe is changing in remarkable ways—characterized by the book’s four key themes: First are similarities in changes at both ends of adulthood, emerging adulthood and encore adulthood. Both Millennials and Boomers are without scripts for what’s next. Second, these times of rapid social, economic, and technological changes enable people to experiment, opening up opportunities for some to fashion new ways of working and living. Third, opportunities for renewal and heightened risks are unequally distributed; education, class, gender, race, and age expand or narrow life chances and life quality. Fourth is the distinctly gendered life courses of women and men, with financial, physical, and emotional well-being implications. The book is divided into three sections, each representing one of three research, policy, and action agendas: first is recognizing institutional inertia, and the outdatedness of contemporary career, retirement and life-course templates. Second is supporting Boomers’ time-shifting improvisations, their alternative pathways. Third is institutional work, including social innovations in language, customs, and policies opening up varied and customized career, retirement, and life-course paths.Less

Encore Adulthood : Boomers on the Edge of Risk, Renewal, and Purpose

Phyllis Moen

Published in print: 2016-05-01

This book describes a new life stage, encore adulthood, sandwiched between conventional adulthood—traditional careers and childrearing—and conventional old age. A time of varied paths in work, retirement, family care, or civic engagement, this stage is made possible by medical advances and lifestyle changes improving population health and longevity. The encore adult years occur around ages 55 to 75, as Boomers begin to think about second acts. Twenty-first-century life in North America and Europe is changing in remarkable ways—characterized by the book’s four key themes: First are similarities in changes at both ends of adulthood, emerging adulthood and encore adulthood. Both Millennials and Boomers are without scripts for what’s next. Second, these times of rapid social, economic, and technological changes enable people to experiment, opening up opportunities for some to fashion new ways of working and living. Third, opportunities for renewal and heightened risks are unequally distributed; education, class, gender, race, and age expand or narrow life chances and life quality. Fourth is the distinctly gendered life courses of women and men, with financial, physical, and emotional well-being implications. The book is divided into three sections, each representing one of three research, policy, and action agendas: first is recognizing institutional inertia, and the outdatedness of contemporary career, retirement and life-course templates. Second is supporting Boomers’ time-shifting improvisations, their alternative pathways. Third is institutional work, including social innovations in language, customs, and policies opening up varied and customized career, retirement, and life-course paths.

Building on a single ethnographic case study, we explore the riskwork performed by members of a mental health hospital. Based on multidisciplinary meetings observations and forty in-depth ...
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Building on a single ethnographic case study, we explore the riskwork performed by members of a mental health hospital. Based on multidisciplinary meetings observations and forty in-depth semi-structured interviews, we studied the way professionals, managers, and patients engage individually and collectively in practices related to safety risks. Drawing on institutional work and institutional logics perspectives, we first show how formal and informal risk management is rooted in often conflicting institutional logics. We then describe how actors skilfully cope with these conflicting logics in their day-to-day routines and how it triggers initiatives that influence the way safety risks are addressed at the organizational and institutional levels.Less

Doing Institutional Riskwork in a Mental Health Hospital

Véronique LabelleLinda Rouleau

Published in print: 2016-09-15

Building on a single ethnographic case study, we explore the riskwork performed by members of a mental health hospital. Based on multidisciplinary meetings observations and forty in-depth semi-structured interviews, we studied the way professionals, managers, and patients engage individually and collectively in practices related to safety risks. Drawing on institutional work and institutional logics perspectives, we first show how formal and informal risk management is rooted in often conflicting institutional logics. We then describe how actors skilfully cope with these conflicting logics in their day-to-day routines and how it triggers initiatives that influence the way safety risks are addressed at the organizational and institutional levels.

This chapter draws on institutional field theories in discussing the institutional work done by international rankings in the global competition for world-class universities. Rankings provide an ...
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This chapter draws on institutional field theories in discussing the institutional work done by international rankings in the global competition for world-class universities. Rankings provide an arena for contestation between actors about who the legitimate players in the field are: they socially construct standards for comparison, success and legitimacy. How these standards are constructed is to a large extent dictated by the international reputational hierarchies that already prevail, biased towards research reputation. This framework is further used for investigating a growing number of governmental policies and organizational strategies that buy into the ranking game. Potentially detrimental effects of the ranking explosion are discussed: financial costs in a zero-sum game, organizational isomorphism, and the reduction of diversity in higher education. The conclusion discusses the role of international rankings for field dynamics and provides a sketch of a forward-looking research agenda.Less

The Academic Arms Race : International Rankings and Global Competition for World-Class Universities

Jürgen Enders

Published in print: 2014-11-13

This chapter draws on institutional field theories in discussing the institutional work done by international rankings in the global competition for world-class universities. Rankings provide an arena for contestation between actors about who the legitimate players in the field are: they socially construct standards for comparison, success and legitimacy. How these standards are constructed is to a large extent dictated by the international reputational hierarchies that already prevail, biased towards research reputation. This framework is further used for investigating a growing number of governmental policies and organizational strategies that buy into the ranking game. Potentially detrimental effects of the ranking explosion are discussed: financial costs in a zero-sum game, organizational isomorphism, and the reduction of diversity in higher education. The conclusion discusses the role of international rankings for field dynamics and provides a sketch of a forward-looking research agenda.

The work of managing risks is routinely organized through models or frameworks, which describe its processes, actors, responsibilities, and expected outcomes in an idealized manner. Little is known ...
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The work of managing risks is routinely organized through models or frameworks, which describe its processes, actors, responsibilities, and expected outcomes in an idealized manner. Little is known about the work of developing these frameworks, despite the fact that some of these have acquired a life of their own, and are widely diffused in public and private organizations. This chapter focuses on the risk assessment–risk management framework that emerged in the 1980s in the US and that came to inform the action of regulatory agencies on health and environmental risks in many places around the world. It describes the work involved in creating a framework successfully, highlighting not only the task of codifying and abstracting knowledge of organizational processes, but also the political work of representing and mediating the various organizational constituencies that contributed to its design.Less

The Work of Making Risk Frameworks

David Demortain

Published in print: 2016-09-15

The work of managing risks is routinely organized through models or frameworks, which describe its processes, actors, responsibilities, and expected outcomes in an idealized manner. Little is known about the work of developing these frameworks, despite the fact that some of these have acquired a life of their own, and are widely diffused in public and private organizations. This chapter focuses on the risk assessment–risk management framework that emerged in the 1980s in the US and that came to inform the action of regulatory agencies on health and environmental risks in many places around the world. It describes the work involved in creating a framework successfully, highlighting not only the task of codifying and abstracting knowledge of organizational processes, but also the political work of representing and mediating the various organizational constituencies that contributed to its design.